Singapore stocks: STI resumes Thursday afternoon at 3,168.10, up 0.76% on day

SINGAPORE stocks built on their morning gains as trading resumed on Thursday afternoon, with the Straits Times Index advancing 0.76 per cent or 23.82 points on the day to 3,168.10 as at 1.04pm.

Gainers outnumbered losers 177 to 115, after 673 million securities worth S$448 million changed hands.

Telecommunications service provider mDR saw a large volume of trading, with its shares flat at S$0.002 after 116.7 million shares changed hands.

Rex International was up S$0.004 or 4.2 per cent to S$0.099 after 85.8 million shares were traded, while Singtel traded up S$0.05 or 1.6 per cent to S$3.28.

Keppel Corp was up S$0.10 or 1.5 per cent to S$6.83 and Sembcorp Marine was up S$0.02 or 1.4 per cent to S$1.42 following their hot streaks this week amid news of Temasek's partial offer to take its stake in conglomerate Keppel Corp to 51 per cent.

The three local banks were all up, with DBS advancing S$0.27 or 1.1 per cent to S$25.06, UOB up S$0.23 or 0.9 per cent to S$26.00, and OCBC gaining S$0.09 or 0.9 per cent to S$10.74.

Most other Asian markets rose on Thursday following a positive lead from Wall Street. US earnings on Wednesday were a mixed bag, but investors remain broadly upbeat after better-than-forecast results so far, which have soothed worries about the impact of slowing economic growth on companies.

In early trade, Hong Kong was up 0.6 per cent and Shanghai added 0.3 per cent, while Tokyo went into the break with gains of 0.6 per cent.

Sydney, Wellington, Taipei and Jakarta were also well up. Seoul fell, however, as data showed the South Korean economy grew in the third quarter at a slower pace than expected, putting it on course for the worst annual performance since the global financial crisis.